Shane said, "Alright, we haven’t visited Grandpa since the wedding, so let’s go together."
"It’s a bit far, on the island," Audrey Sutton said.
Shane pondered for a mont, as if planning his schedule, and said, "Let’s go on the eighteenth. I have a eting in the morning, but we can leave in the afternoon. I can stay with you until school starts again."
"Really?!"
"Mm, but don’t cause any trouble these days. Just stay ho and don’t find ways to check up on ."
Audrey corrected him, "I said I’m not checking up on you, just purely coming by for fun."
"Never seen anyone ’having fun’ like that."
"Are you done yet? Always bringing this up!"
After such a misunderstanding, it was confird Shane wasn’t fooling around outside.
Audrey returned to school and peacefully listened to the last lecture of the holiday.
Finished packing her things in the dorm, Audrey dragged her suitcase ho.
Shane ca back in the morning and only dropped off his luggage before heading to the company.
When Audrey got inside, she saw his suitcase placed by the door.
To accompany her back to his hotown for the sumr, he likely had a lot to deal with today.
Audrey wanted to be a bit more considerate, so she helped carry his suitcase upstairs.
The suitcase should only contain so clothes to change into, so it wasn’t heavy.
Testing the bedroom door, it surprisingly wasn’t locked.
Originally, she just wanted to make space for his luggage, but since she was inside, Audrey couldn’t resist her curiosity and surveyed his room.
The cleanliness was akin to a freshly cleaned five-star hotel, barely a speck of dust in sight.
The room was spacious, yet not much was placed inside. Apart from necessities like the bed, wardrobe, desk, and sofa, there were no superfluous furnishings.
Looking at the desk by the window, tidy stacks of jewelry magazines and finance books were arranged.
Beside the books was a pair of golden-frad glasses, probably worn only when he read. She’d never seen him wear glasses, imagining him as the intellectual villain type.
A notebook was placed near the middle by the chair side; Audrey curiously opened it, almost like a thief, and flipped through a few pages, finding nothing but his jewelry design sketches.
The easel next to the desk held a half-finished design draft, rely a pencil sketch without color.
She wasn’t interested in these, but in sothing more secretive, exploring what she didn’t know yet.
But evidently, soone as cautious as him wouldn’t leave secrets out in the open.
Having a slight disappointnt when about to put things away and leave, Audrey suddenly spotted a photo fra by his bedside.
Like discovering a new continent, she hurried over.
She didn’t pick up the fra; instead, she crouched slightly, tilting her head to make sense of the angle.
The fra held two n, one was Shane, estimating him to be around seventeen or eighteen, showing contentnt despite not smiling clearly.
The man beside him, Audrey guessed to be his brother.
The brother seed different from Shane in temperant; even through the photo, you could feel he was a particularly sunny and cheerful person with an infectious smile like bright sunshine.
Seems like a gentle person; it’s quite a pity thinking about it.
Audrey stood up, pondering how Shane must see this photo before bed every night; his brother must an a lot to him.
The brother’s departure undoubtedly left Shane struggling to move on.
She’s not entirely clear on the situation yet, but vaguely feels the brother’s death might be related to so covert conflict within The Warner.
Audrey sorted Shane’s clothes from the suitcase and tid her visit to his company when he was finishing work.
Standing at Warner Group’s lobby, she hesitated to go in and find Shane.
"Audrey?"
Audrey turned to the voice and saw the man just getting out of a car, awkwardly smiling, "Mr... Mr. Warner."
Audrey couldn’t find a suitable address, so she chose the most formal and error-free title.
Vincent Warner approached softly and asked, "Here to see Shane?"
"Mm... Waiting for him to finish work."
"It’s hot outside; let take you up to find him."
Audrey glanced at Vincent’s assistant and others following behind, seemingly not having ti to linger by the entrance with her.
Outside was indeed hot, so after a mont’s thought, she followed Vincent into the company.
A big company indeed, it had over ten elevators alone.
The elevator panel lit up "6" and "48," and when they reached the sixth floor, Vincent told the other subordinates, "Go ahead and prepare, I’ll be there shortly."
Others exited the elevator one after another, leaving Audrey and Vincent alone.
He stood near the elevator buttons; Audrey was at the opposite corner.
The atmosphere was awkward, and she didn’t know what to say.
Vincent raised his hand and glanced at his watch, "The eting should end soon; you can wait in his office."
Audrey obediently nodded, pursing her lips not knowing what to say.
"Shane must really like you, right?"
Audrey paused, "Huh?"
Vincent smiled and said, "Feels like he’s changed completely after marrying you."
Audrey chuckled dryly, "Is that so?"
She hadn’t noticed any change in Shane because she didn’t really know what he was like before.
As for him liking her, Audrey didn’t feel delighted.
Because in front of others, he seed to treat her well and privately took care of her, but Audrey knew these actions had nothing to do with "liking."
"Ding dong—" The elevator door finally opened slowly.
Audrey followed Vincent out of the elevator, glancing where Shane’s office might be, coincidentally seeing him approaching the elevator.
He saw her, probably noticed Vincent beside her, and furrowed his brow deeply.
Vincent knew well enough, smiled at Audrey and said, "Since he’s here, I don’t need to take you. I’ll head down."
Audrey numbly nodded, "Thank you."
Vincent re-entered the elevator; as the door closed slowly, Shane reached Audrey’s side, unhappily questioning her, "Why are you with him? Don’t you rember what I told you?"
Audrey explained, "...I just ran into him at the company gate; he was rely being kind by bringing up."
"Kind? A bad person wouldn’t have ’bad’ written on their face." His tone was serious, genuinely worried about Vincent’s intentions towards her.
Audrey felt Shane was overreacting but kept quiet, sensing he had so prejudice against Vincent.
The root of the prejudice might be linked to his brother’s death.
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